Calling The Pope 'holy Father'

[rhetoricfemme]

[i]I meant to post this here in Open Mic yesterday, but ended up putting in the forum for news articles on accident. I'd really like to get some perspective on this, if anyone wants to reply I'd appreciate it !And big thanks to Catherine's reply in the original post, which is a great way to say it all. [/i]

Calling the Pope 'Holy Father' is awkward for me. Is it weird for anyone else? It seems like the title Holy Father should be something reserved for God alone. Please keep in mind that I did not grow up Catholic and am still learning so much about the church, so sometimes things come up that just seem foreign or odd to me. It's in no way a criticism and I very much respect the Pope.

Still, the thought remains... Why do we call anyone other than God Himself Holy Father, even if the man is supposed to be an earthly representative of Christ Himself?

[MIKolbe]

it's not that much of a big deal to me, and I really don't know why. It just isn't.

I call God Almighty Father, and Heavenly Father.

[cappie]

St. Paul makes use of the term Father in his First Letter to the Corinthians, whom he admonishes like a father, because their behavior does not conform sufficiently to the teaching he gave them, and so he says: “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (4:15).

And so, it is within an “ecclesial” context, in reference to the mission proper to one who exercises evangelical fatherhood, in the spiritual order, that it is necessary to consider the use of the term “father” for those who in the Church have a special mission of spiritual “generation,” in regard to teaching, sanctifying, gathering together the community of believers. Besides, the primitive Church had no difficulty in living this reality. St. Jerome (342-420) wrote that, in the monasteries of Palestine and Egypt, the monks addressed one another with the title of “father.”

For the Sovereign Pontiff, Successor of Peter as Bishop of Rome, the title of Father is especially apt. The attribution “holy,” in the expression “Holy Father,” does not have a primarily moral content to it, in the sense of identifying the Pope with a saint canonically recognized as such.

the expression “Holy Father” means:

1. On the part of the faithful, a filial, loving relationship, which recognizes in the one so addressed or spoken to, a mission of spiritual fatherhood, expressing that of God toward us, in the threefold charge confided to the Church of preaching the Good News of salvation, of sanctifying the believers, and of gathering together the dispersed children of God. This is a special and supreme responsibility of the Pope in the Church’s threefold mission of teaching, governing and sanctifying, as Prophet, Priest and Shepherd.

2. On the part of the one who is so designated, the responsibility to live this mission in perfect conformity to the will of Christ, “the Holy One of God,” to live what God already asked of His People through Moses: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lv 11:44; 19:2).

It concerns, then, a fatherhood exercised in the name of God, from Whom “all fatherhood takes its name, both in heaven and on earth” (Eph 3:15), and from which the opening hymn of the Letter to the Ephesians (1:3-14) places the origin, while the verses 15-23 express how this fatherhood should be actualized in the apostolic ministry.

The qualifier “holy” underlines the spiritual dimension of this fatherhood exercised in the name of God; and we have already said that it does not imply a moral judgment on the person of the Pope. The expression “Holy Father” was born in the time of the controversy over lay investiture, and it seemed normal that in its becoming common usage in the acts of the chancery, the Roman Curia had then wished to underscore the spiritual and supernatural level of the mission of the Pope by adding the adjective “holy” — to defend implicitly the superiority of papal power over imperial power.

[sacredheartandbloodofjesus]

[quote name='rhetoricfemme' timestamp='1290107144' post='2187875']
[i]I meant to post this here in Open Mic yesterday, but ended up putting in the forum for news articles on accident. I'd really like to get some perspective on this, if anyone wants to reply I'd appreciate it !And big thanks to Catherine's reply in the original post, which is a great way to say it all. [/i]

Calling the Pope 'Holy Father' is awkward for me. Is it weird for anyone else? It seems like the title Holy Father should be something reserved for God alone. Please keep in mind that I did not grow up Catholic and am still learning so much about the church, so sometimes things come up that just seem foreign or odd to me. It's in no way a criticism and I very much respect the Pope.

Still, the thought remains... Why do we call anyone other than God Himself Holy Father, even if the man is supposed to be an earthly representative of Christ Himself?
[/quote]

You arent obliged as a Catholic to call the Pope "Holy Father" or even "Your Holiness" its just a pius way of recognizing the sacredness of his office.

[Micah]

I am very much in the same boat as Rhetoricfemme. I don't shirk away from the term. When it crops up in conversation, I say it, but there is definitely a little twinge somewhere in the back of my head whenever I do. I'm familiar with the explanations; I enjoy calling my priest Father, I know the biblical basis, but it still remains a minor hangup. I usually call the Pope Papa Benedict.

Edited November 18, 2010 by Micah

[AllForYourGlory]

[quote name='MIkolbe' timestamp='1290108408' post='2187878']
it's not that much of a big deal to me, and I really don't know why. It just isn't.

I call God Almighty Father, and Heavenly Father.
[/quote]

I would have to agree with you as well!

[Klaudi87]

[quote name='AllForYourGlory' timestamp='1290135462' post='2187974']
I would have to agree with you as well!
[/quote]


Me three!.....what has helped me to really embrace it, is learning about the papacy and why we have it.

[RomanCatholic]

I haven't found an issue with it at all, even as a Catholic convert. I feel proud to say it, knowing I am in the Church of Christ and we have a Prophet, Priest and Shepherd as our earthly guide.

[holly.o]

Many religious orders call their founders Holy Father... like Holy Father St. Francis & Holy Father St. Dominic. Not on the same level as the Pope, but the same idea, as cappie expressed it. I think some say Holy Mother St. Someone (am I thinking of St. Clare?), too.

I guess I would tend to say Pope Benedict because that does distinguish him as such, but I don't have a problem with Holy Father, either.

[tinytherese]

It hasn't been an issue for me. He is a spiritual father afterall. Even though I've never met him or JP2 in person, they've been far better father figures to me than my own has been. I once defended Pope John Paul II from my dad who was mocking him for going to the prison where his assassin was and forgiving him. Not even my own dad messes with my spiritual father. It also makes sense since the Church itself is referred to as "Mother and Teacher." She is the pope's bride afterall since he is an ambassador of Christ.

[Destroyer of Heretics]

[quote name='rhetoricfemme' timestamp='1290107144' post='2187875']
[i]I meant to post this here in Open Mic yesterday, but ended up putting in the forum for news articles on accident. I'd really like to get some perspective on this, if anyone wants to reply I'd appreciate it !And big thanks to Catherine's reply in the original post, which is a great way to say it all. [/i]

Calling the Pope 'Holy Father' is awkward for me. Is it weird for anyone else? It seems like the title Holy Father should be something reserved for God alone. Please keep in mind that I did not grow up Catholic and am still learning so much about the church, so sometimes things come up that just seem foreign or odd to me. It's in no way a criticism and I very much respect the Pope.

Still, the thought remains... Why do we call anyone other than God Himself Holy Father, even if the man is supposed to be an earthly representative of Christ Himself?
[/quote]## [font="Georgia"][size="4"]"I did not grow up Catholic" either - but it's never been a problem. If the Kaiser could be referred to as "the All-Highest" - and this is a Protestant Emperor we're talking about - why worry about the title "Holy Father" for the Catholic Pope ?

"Holy Father" - and a lot of other Papal epithets from various periods - look shocking only if one ignores the context, and treat Popes as though they were alone in taking titles when they were not. Compare for example:

"Beatitude" for Catholic Patriarchs
[/size][/font][list][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Highness[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"] [size="4"]Majesty[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Your Grace[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Your Lordship[/size][/font][/list][list][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Serene Highness[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Sacred Majesty[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Apostolic Majesty[/size][/font][/list][list][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Most Reverend[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Very Reverend[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Right Reverend[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Reverend[/size][/font] [/list] [font="Georgia"][size="4"]Excellency - for Ambassadors

& so on. Properly speaking , these words apply only to God, Who is alone & in Himself:
[/size][/font][list][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Majestic[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"] [size="4"]Most High
[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Excellent[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"] [size="4"]Reverend[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Lord[/size] [/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Blessed[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"] High[/size][/font][*][font="Georgia"][size="4"]Gracious[/size][/font][*] [font="Georgia"][size="4"]Serene[/size][/font][/list][font="Georgia"][size="4"] - but Christians go ahead and call mere sinners by these titles anyway. Since the US has no royal or Imperial family & no peerage, and no established Church with a hierarchy, and since ambassadors are slightly thin on the ground, such titles can look shocking in the US, when they are no big deal in Europe. So why is it somehow an issue when the Pope is called "Holy Father" ? IMO, the distaste is based on nothing more significant than cultural difference & unfamilarity; as with vestments, say. The fact US Evangelicals don't like something Catholic, is a very good reason to emphasise it [/size][/font]